Book Sand Worm

The Basics

Tyler and Kinsey discover the history of Keyhouse, their lineage, their father’s past, and start to understand the danger that awaits them.

My Thoughts

You know that series you love and for which you anticipate each, new installment? You want it as soon as it comes out. You’re salivating over it. You’re so ready. And it’s a twenty dollar book that seems destined to never go down in price. I hate to say it, but I’m notoriously cheap, and so the rest of this series kept eluding me. And don’t even speak to me of libraries. They don’t stock graphic novels here, and that is the least of their sins.

So I was downright physically relieved to get this book in my hands. I read it at mach speed. Did this maybe sway my rating? Probably. I’m deeply invested at this point. So that when a problem that seems like it’s going to be a big deal is resolved within a few panels, I brush it off. When everything that the story was building to suddenly seems a tad too simple and Lovecraftian, whatever! It’s Locke and Key. It can do no wrong in my eyes. That’s probably a warning not to trust me entirely.

But one thing that this book did right that is not up for debate was all that backstory. From the creation of the world’s most important key to what Rendell Locke went through in his youth that started this whole business. Lots and lots of feels, as is the parlance. Much is revealed, and it’s all very satisfying and dramatic and what you will have come to expect from this series.

But it feels penultimate. This is clearly the wind up for the punch that will be volume six. I can’t wait.

Final Rating

5/5

I don't normally do TBRs, because I don't like feeling hemmed in by book choices I promised I would read. I like having more freedom than that. But Halloween is a different deal. I love horror, and I love Halloween, so it's usually not a problem for me to create a TBR with that in mind and stick to it. Hopefully I won't burn out and go totally against what I just said, but with all those above disclaimers in mind, here is what I plan to read in October.

Floating Dragon by Peter Straub - I'm already in the middle of this one from last month, but it just so happens that it fits the horror theme quite well. I've heard it called Straub's version of IT (meaning the Stephen King novel), though it predates it. IT. You know what I mean. This book has a lot of those same themes, of a town that is itself sick with evil, of people bonding on some cosmic level, and of everything that is scary being crammed into one story. So far, so good.

Dark Dance by Tanith Lee - I couldn't resist and already finished this one. October is coming early for me this year. It's set in modern day with a very old-school gothic feel. We follow Rachaela as her father's family contacts her and asks she come live with them, but she feels dread at this. Her father left before she was born, and her mother always held contempt for his family. Things only get weirder when she arrives at the house and discovers how bizarre their way of life is. Oh, that's a nice basics actually, so you may end up seeing that summary again. Spoiler alert: I loved it. Though it's pretty dark and controversial. More on that when I get to my review of it. But it was a great start for this little project.

The Return by Bentley Little - I feel weird choosing a Little title, since it wasn't that long ago that I read The Haunted. But he's usually a safe bet for me. Hard to say since the average rating on this one is lower than most of his other books, but he's surprised me before. The summary was a tad vague, though I am assured there is some kind of monster. That's really all I need to hear.

'48 by James Herbert - Zombies! WWII era zombies. One of those books that when you read what the premise is, it immediately draws you in with its "rule of cool" right in the summary. It doesn't hurt that I have read some Herbert before and enjoy his writing style and his take on horror.

Demons by John Shirley - Shirley is one of those forgotten authors that generally do better overall than he gets credit for. This one sounds like quite a ride, as it's an apocalypse involving demons, which I'm not ready to call biblical until I've read it. It promises both gore and intrigue, and I'm a fan of both.

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells - I wanted to work a classic in, though these days finding classic horror I haven't read is getting harder and harder. This is one that passed me by despite being a reader of Wells since I was in my teens. I just never got around to it, so it's high time I did.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - One of the few Gaiman stories I haven't read. And it has another level of appeal. It's middle grade and therefore guaranteed to be a lighter read than some of these others. I have a high tolerance for scares, but it couldn't hurt to have something on standby that might be more easygoing while maintaining that Halloween-ish appeal.

So what do you think? If you've read any of these, let me know your thoughts. If you're just plain excited to see me read any of these, express said excitement. And happy early Halloween.

The Basics

It all starts with Dwight playing the hero when Shellie's boyfriend, Jack, threatens her. And it ends in betrayal, insanity, and blood.

My Thoughts

That was pretty vague, but I'm aware that not everyone has read these comics or watched the movie adaptation, and this story relies a lot on unexpected turns. In fact, reading it after having seen the movie, it lacks something. Half the fun is in the suspense hanging until those reveals are made. If you know what's coming, the suspense seems almost annoying with the way it drags.

It also doesn't help that when I saw the film, while I loved it, Dwight's segment was my least favorite. I was a much bigger fan of Marv and Hartigan and remain so. Due to all these circumstances, this is my least favorite installment of the entire series. Strangely, I still deeply enjoyed reading The Hard Goodbye and That Yellow Bastard. This one just didn't capture me the way those stories did.

This was also the last of the series that I had to read in order to complete it, and I can see now that I held it off for a reason. I think part of me knew I wouldn't be entirely satisfied with it. It lacks the heart of the other stories and goes fully for mystery and unrelenting violence. Sin City always stood out to me as have a spot of romance or heroism amidst the ugliness, and there's very little of that here.

I can't say that watching the film first ruined this for me, but I wonder now how it would've been different. The movie is, panel for panel, the book. But it is worth the artwork, which is always a high point of Miller's work for me. It is still a good story, probably even more compelling for the uninitiated.

Final Rating

3/5

The Basics

A collection of short stories, mainly in a contemporary vein. Each story deals with some transgression or sin and how it impacts the life of the sinner and those around them. From greed to lust to addiction.

My Thoughts

The unfortunate thing here is that these stories don’t entirely hold up for a modern audience. At times, they come off as morality tales, and there’s a preachiness there. They waffled between being simple, honest portrayals of hard lives and waggling a finger at the characters in an attempt to teach the audience something. When they were the former, it was wonderful. When they were the latter, it rankled.

I think, too, that it’s easy to write a contemporary story that teaches something, but harder to do so in science fiction. There is no SF to be found here. It’s all steeped entirely in reality, and I simply prefer seeing Ellison wind his way through a more fantastical setting, molding it to suit what message he wants to impart. Using SF as the package for a message can make it an easier pill to swallow, where these stories felt jagged and force-fed.

I didn’t hate it by any means, but I remember thinking quite clearly that I wish I could figure out what was holding this back from being what his other collections have been to me. The writing was still beautiful. I have enjoyed his contemporary stories, like from No Doors, No Windows, in the past. So what was the problem? They weren’t smooth. Particularly any story that incorporated drug use was judgmental. Regardless about how I felt about these topics, I didn’t enjoy feeling as if I should feel one way or another.

I wouldn’t recommend this for a first time reader, but for completionists, go for it. It’s always worth Ellison’s prose.

Final Rating

3.5/5

The Basics

Father John Rafferty finds himself as one of the lead suspects when a young woman he was close to, Maria, is killed. His church comes under scrutiny as does his personal character, but there may be something much more sinister at work beneath the surface. Something demonic.

My Thoughts

Here’s the thing about Whitley Strieber. His writing can be very stream of consciousness, and you have to strap in for that. He’s like a less disciplined Peter Straub, just as dreamlike but more likely to lose you if you aren’t paying attention. One thing that suffers greatly because of this is his characters. It’s not that he’s failing to put us in their heads, but his dialogue doesn’t ring true. Meaning if you tried to imagine someone talking like that, you might struggle.

But if you can weather a little strangeness in the presentation, his writing is beautiful. It says exactly what it needs to, but it’s speaking to a more primal part of us, an emotional core, that is more in tune with feelings and less with reason. In that way, this story followed exactly the sort of roller coaster you could expect from prose like that. And also in that way, it was a very compelling read.

I’m a fan of genre fiction that incorporates the Catholic church. Everyone has their buzzwords that make them want a book in their grubby hands in under two minutes flat, and mine are “priest” or “father”. It’s just a fascination I have. I always appreciate that, if someone is going to write such a book, it be accurate. This one was. Rafferty’s passion for his work and the church was palpable. The spiritual crises many of the characters go through were eloquently portrayed.

I will say that I knew who the killer was from a couple chapters in. It didn’t surprise me at all. I wish there had been more ambiguity about whether there was a demon presence as well. These are quibbles, because at the end of the day, I really enjoyed this read.

Final Rating

4/5

The Basics

A collection of poetry, lyrics, and prose by Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors.

My Thoughts

I don’t feel qualified to talk about poetry in a greater, broader sense of the term, as in encompassing a whole genre. I don’t read enough of it to be able to do that. I can’t compare Morrison’s work to anyone, because I wouldn’t know how. I can only really talk about his work from the standpoint of being a fan of his music. If you wanted something grander than that, turn away now.

One thing I can say is that with my unfamiliarity with poetry, I struggle to find where I want to start. Frost and Dickinson always left me feeling bored and then utterly shocked when people said their work meant this or that when I couldn’t see it. Shows what a layman I am, saying that.

But it also leads me into how this book made me feel. Morrison spun his words purposefully and well. His imagery was crisp and raw, and it evoked so much emotion. The meaning behind what he meant to say was never lost on me. Even though it was psychedelic and strange, it was charged with an energy that you will instantly grasp as you read. He doesn’t hide a deeper meaning behind anything pretty, and most of the poems here have a transgressive leaning, all of which I appreciated. I found I couldn’t read it in one sitting because it was almost overpowering, which I mean as a compliment.

If you’re interested in 60s counterculture or transgressive literature of any kind, this is a good find. And as you can see, even the uninitiated in the poetry world can find an easy in here.

Final Rating

5/5

The Basics

In the final installment of The First Law Trilogy, the war is on. The Gurkish are coming, and the North still hasn’t settled its fight with King Bethod. But whether the Union is ready or not, things are coming to a head.

My Thoughts

That was as much as I dare share. They aren’t spoilers that will totally ruin you, but there are plenty that would. There are a thousand and one things I can’t say about this book for that reason, but I will try to say as much as possible without wrecking the experience for readers who aren’t there yet.

This book is where the wars that have been building are seen in full effect. There is a lot of battle to be found here. Abercrombie is very good at writing action, but if you get fatigued by reading lots of fights, get ready to be exhausted. That was maybe one of the elements of this book that was harder to push through. These wars reach a truly epic scale here, but that means battles take over the storytelling entirely for large chunks of the book. I appreciated his “war is hell” message, truly. But he hammered it home to the point that it effected my ability to enjoy the very act of reading it. I never like sighing at a book and saying, “I get it”, but I did reach that point. Every author has a topic they are passionate about, and war being a terrible thing is clearly that for Abercrombie, but he was very self-indulgent here about dropping that anvil.

Don’t mistake that statement above for hate, because it isn’t. This is what these books had been building toward: a monstrously huge ending, and he gives us that. It deserves to be filmed on as large a scale as he clearly intends the action to be viewed, so it wasn’t all bad. Just a few inches too far, enough that less would’ve been more.

And then we come to what was his endgame besides the intensity and horribleness of war. Different readers may take it better or worse than others, but the bottom line is Abercrombie is a very cynical guy. He doesn’t believe the glass is half full or half empty. He believes it’s a glass of urine. So if you expected any of the character development from the previous books to amount to good things, he will soundly crush that hope. There’s a resounding message here about how people don’t change for the better. And I’ve been struggling since I finished the book to decide how that makes me feel.

I think it’s an interesting approach. I think it’s brave, considering it’s the much harder way to write characters because it’s not entirely satisfying. I’m fascinated by this message, and I do enjoy seeing it in fiction, though I’ve never seen fantasy quite this dark before. In that way, he managed to be more hopeless and depressing than George R.R. Martin, and that is a feat. He’s set the bar for how far a writer is willing to go.

On the other hand, it left me feeling tired and disappointed upon finishing the series. So that after feeling he was so readable, after being unable to put this series down for even a second, I haven’t returned to his work. I intend to, but I’m trying to shake the feeling of having been burned. Knowing now how he approaches the idea of characters, that his anti-heroes shouldn’t be expected to turn into full-fledged heroes, I feel more prepared. I wish he’d given more hints in the first two books instead of giving shades of hope that were crushed in the third installment.

Yet with all that this was an amazing ride. Well-written. Shocking. Action-packed. I highly recommend it for readers who like dark fantasy. Pitch black, can’t-see-my-hand-in-front-of-my-face fantasy. To clarify.

Final Rating

4/5

The Basics

A collection of gothic-horror short stories as reissued by Penguin Books as part of their horror series. The most famous of which is “Sardonicus”, the tale of a man who cannot stop smiling. That sounds pleasant, but it’s a rictus smile, large and grotesque and frozen on his face. In the tradition of Dracula, our innocent narrator is brought in to deal with this man’s complaint and finds something much darker than he wagered.

My Thoughts

Ray Russell. Anyone else never heard of this guy? I hadn’t, and I want to personally thank Penguin right here and now for putting this collection in with their horror series. Every other book was one I was entirely too familiar with, and it seemed more an exercise in recollecting favorite books for horror aficionados. Except for this one, which stood out for that reason. I had to see why Penguin deigned this good enough to dwell among the ranks of Lovecraft and Jackson and Shelley. And good thing I did.

I’ve never seen anyone in contemporary writing sound so downright old-school gothic. It was seamless. I could’ve been reading Poe or Lovecraft, as mentioned above. Only with even more envelope pushing, more of a modern sensibility, but not enough to interrupt that perfectly period voice.

As for the stories, this volume contains a very loose trilogy (“Sardonicus”, “Sagittarius”, and “Sanguinarius”), all of which were well worth the time. I say loosely because other than their titles sharing a theme, they’re all dark gothic stories with little else to connect them. Well, an argument could be made that they all had a similar tone and they all sought to create monsters similar to Mr. Hyde or Count Dracula to haunt us. And the other stories are equally worthy, though shorter, quicker jabs.

One thing I will say: you should be able to appreciate classic horror in some way if you’re going to approach this. Good and evil are black and white here. Many of the old tropes apply, like someone’s looks being proof of their character. The bad guys here are punished sinners. There are damsels to be rescued. Things like that. Things that might rub some readers the wrong way, but I found it charming, Pulpy. I have a real weakness for pulp.

It saddens me that Russell has been lost in the shuffle when it comes to horror. So much of his other work is out of print, and I’m hoping that Penguin will turn their eye that way again the next time they decide to expand their horror series.

Final Rating

5/5

The Basics

The Perrys are having trouble in their neighborhood and decide to move. They’re fairly sorry they did when they’re beset by nightmares, apparitions, eerie neighbors, and something in the basement.

My Thoughts

I don’t like ghost stories. And yet I keep coming back. Because there are some that are scary despite ghosts being so unscary. Like The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and The Shining by Stephen King, just to name a couple. This is not among those ranks, sadly. I’d hoped it would be, because Little does have a penchant for taking an old idea and make it shiny and new. He tries here, but it wasn’t enough.

I say he tries, but in some ways the writing here is damn lazy. I don’t remember the names of any of the main characters, which is telling. His attempts to write a teenage girl in the family fell horribly flat in many ways. By the time the end rolled around and things were dire, I barely cared. So not great in the character department.

There were also times when it felt like he was trying to throw in everything but the kitchen sink as far as scares. He threw the whole batch at the wall, and some moments stick and some don’t. Definitely don’t look for subtlety here though, as we get everything from the daughter being threatened with ghost rape to faces in the toilet to the son uncontrollably eating dirt to poltergeists to… The list doesn’t end. I understand that most hauntings, whether “real” or fictional, tend to have a lot of different signs and omens regarding an unseen entity in the house, but this got really ridiculous. That was part of the fun, part of what saved it from being terrible, but it also leaves me at a loss when trying to describe what happened. Everything happened. Every single thing you could imagine and some you can’t.

It did have some very scary moments. One of the aspects of this particular haunting is that the house compels people to stay, to come inside, to not run or save themselves. That was played with nicely, often ramped up the suspense, and resulted in some truly jarring moments.

But would I recommend it? If you love haunted house stories, probably. Because I’m aware that part of my problem is a numbness toward that horror sub-genre. For me, as much as Little tried, it doesn’t shine, if you get my drift.

Final Rating

3/5

The Basics

In a world where the least desire is met, our heroine/hero is getting bored. They want something intangibly more that vast technological advances can’t meet. The questions becomes not whether they will find the answer they seek but whether society will let them.

My Thoughts

This is one of Tanith Lee’s most popular works, and having finally read it, I see why. Not just for it’s entertainment value, of which is has a lot, but for the chances it takes and the messages it sends. By today’s standards, what Lee does with the idea of gender swapping might seem tame, but for it’s day, I can imagine it was different, illuminating, and maybe even shocking to some. Characters in this world change appearance and gender on a whim. They get married and divorced within a week. There is a lot said here about sexual orientation, sex in general, gender identification, and so on. In many cases, the truthfulness of what’s said is debatable, like how our nameless narrator makes a very different man than she does a woman and what the implications of that are. But it can still be said that this book takes a lot of worthy chances by involving the idea of gender being transitory.

The story also echoes the classic Brave New World, though from a slightly different angle. Where Huxley had an outsider appalled by what he witnessed in this supposed utopia, we have an insider who starts to see the sheen and glitter of their utopia tarnish. And in the most interesting way. Death is nothing in this world. Suicide is the norm, something people do so they can come back with a new body. Yet our narrator suffers loses. The path she takes (and most of her loses are suffered when she is in a female body) makes it so she witnesses death in a very personal way. So that by the time we reach part two of the story, she is now a he and pursuing an entirely different way of life than those around him. The heroine/hero’s narrative is so well-done that this transition feels entirely natural, and the character development is thorough and fascinating.

As you can see, this book is hard to sum up. It’s about a dystopia in sheep’s clothing. It’s about acceptance of the imperfect. It’s about facing death. It’s about gender identity. It’s also just an amazingly fun romp for all that. A future-world adventure with a narrator who starts out a shallow nuisance and becomes something their world has never seen before. It has a rich plot and a great main character. It’s worth the hype it receives.

Final Rating

5/5

The Basics

They aren’t superheroes. They’re more like demigods. They’re more like the kind of beings who look at superheroes and smirk. They’ve been there and done that when it comes to the entire universe. And this is their story.

My Thoughts

I am a reader of all things Gaiman, so this was a completionist thing for me. It’s one of those forgotten volumes in his bibliography, but it sounded promising. I loved Marvel 1602, so surely this wouldn’t be too far off the mark, at least in quality.

And, well… meh. I love Gaiman and his imagination, so color me deeply surprised that this was so very meh. The characters weren’t very well-developed, the idea being that this was going to turn into an ongoing series sans Gaiman. There wasn’t an ending exactly, the idea being it would be a series. It was mostly exposition about some very strange “creation of the world” stuff that has never really been addressed in the new Marvel books before. And even the other heroes who show up (Iron Man and Wasp and Hank Pym) seem bemused at best with what to do with these new beings, because as stated above.

But the success of this series is obvious. I mean, how many of you have heard of it? It’s nigh on impossible to find the later comics, and the series itself didn’t last very long. This book only works as the beginning of an ongoing story. One where you could say, “ah, well, this one was just okay, but I’d love to see where it goes.” And it doesn’t go anywhere, because no one was buying the comics. So this story just sits there. Alone. With no supplementary material and feeling much weaker for it.

Hilariously, I must share a line from the synopsis for this book: “So why does no one remember any of this?" Because it was fairly underwhelming. I think I’ve discovered that is the answer.

Final Rating

2/5

The Basics

Offred is a handmaid living in a distorted, highly patriarchal world. She always wears red, and she has to abide by a strict set of rules. She is a vessel, and nothing more, at least outwardly. Inwardly, there is a struggle happening, a tale she has to tell.

My Thoughts

This is the review I was dreading. This book is a beloved, dystopian classic. And I didn’t like it that much. That’s vastly disappointing, because dystopian fiction is sort of my thing, but this didn’t hit any of the right buttons for me.

Firstly, the writing. It was written in a stream of consciousness style, and I appreciated why. Offred is not allowed to read or write, so we aren’t reading diary entries. We are directly inside her head, reading her thoughts. It’s very clever. And so irritating to read. Her similes and metaphors were bizarre. She would say off-the-wall things like something looks like a smell or feels like a color. And I just couldn’t stand it. I think I was supposed to find it unique and beautiful, but I kept noticing it and found it insipid. It read like a teenager writing their first poetry with the apparent assumption that poetry is weird. It wasn’t evocative like Atwood intended. Not for me, at least.

As for the feminist angle of the story, it hit some notes perfectly and others were quite flat. The world itself was a good example of any woman’s purest nightmare. Where a woman’s sexuality belongs to a man, not herself. Where we, as a gender, are subjugated to the point that the privilege of news or reading or sharing your thoughts is a crime depending on your status. The most terrifying part of the entire story for me was when the main character flashes back to when it all began. The day she lost her job and couldn’t access her bank account and discovered the reason was the men had taken over and decided to limit what women could have power of. And it was only the beginning.

But then what does Atwood do with this world? Anyone who revolts or is of a different religion or sexual orientation or anything they don’t like is killed, so revolution isn’t in the cards. I’m still not entirely clear on why any of it happened in the first place other than the men felt like doing it, which seemed thin to say the least. So we’re left with following Offred day in and day out, reading her weird, tangled thoughts, waiting for something to happen. When the story finally heads in a direction where something is happening, something that could change everything, it fizzles. And the end is left open to interpretation. I sort of wanted to sling the book across the room when I read that ending. The least it could’ve done was give me some closure, good or bad.

So from that above paragraph, what I’m trying to say is, Atwood really only succeeded in giving a worst case scenario that is indeed very frightening with nothing else particularly engaging about it. Offred is not a rebel. In fact, while she struggles with wanting independence, with raging inside at all she’s been through, the moments where she has a choice, she chooses to obey. Perhaps I was to believe that she was so beaten down that she felt no other choice, but it didn’t read that way to me. It read as someone seeking liberation who was too mixed up about what freedom is to make a choice that mattered. So even her liberation is just a form of obeying, and I was highly disappointed in that. Her friend we hear about on and off through the story, Moira, would’ve made a much more interesting protagonist. I wanted more of her and less of Offred really.

When I heard this book was a feminist story, I expected so much more from it. Less of this gray, drab complacence. Offred is not Winston in 1984. She is a drone who stays a drone, and we can’t even tell if her ending is a beginning or a tragic demise. I feel like this book gave me so little when I expected so much. For the record, if you want some very fearless feminism in your books, read Angela Carter. It’s much more satisfying.

Final Rating

2.5/5

The Basics

Zita and Joseph see something fall from the sky and decide to investigate. It’s some sort of device, and when Zita activates it, it pulls Joseph into another world. She follows, but Joseph’s already been kidnapped by aliens. So now it’s Zita’s job to rescue him.

My Thoughts

Let’s get the good out of the way first, because there is plenty. The artwork is very cute, very well-done. The friends that Zita makes along the way are varied and interesting and adorable. The humor hits a lot of high notes, and nothing made me groan really. It was a well-constructed story that is great for middle grade readers.

Now my problems with it. For starters, this was so fast paced, I wasn’t given a moment to breathe. No one was really developed besides some exposition and hyper-quick reveals. It felt like chewing on a lump of sugar that overwhelmed fast. This book, for this reason, actually helped me realize what it is about middle grade that I can’t get past. Authors nowadays seem terrified of writing a story for kids that lingers on anything. They are writing for the kid with the attention deficit, hoping to keep them engaged, so when I read it, I’m blinded by the swirling colors and begging them to slow down for a second. Unlike some stories, this managed to not become an overwhelming mess, but it still wasn’t great.

Here was my other major problem: Zita. The idea is that Zita is a plucky Tomboy who subverts the idea of a girl needing to be rescued. In fact, she is rescuing a boy. Very progressive. Except… her pluckiness is what started the plot moving in the first place. The boy was being cautious, reasonably so, and she jumped ahead blindly and got him kidnapped. Everything that happens is her fault. Things like that continue to happen throughout the story. She runs headlong into danger and barely survives and nearly kills everyone around her. Her “pluckiness” isn’t a virtue.

And yet that aspect of her isn’t used as a cautionary tale either. The moral of the story is not to look before you leap. Zita learns nothing. It’s just a device to bring about humor or peril without it having any impact on Zita as a character. It’s not a very good feminist model, and it’s not a very good lesson for kids. I’m too old and analytical for this book, because while it’s silly fun, I saw potential for more, and it doesn’t meet that bar.

Final Rating

3/5

The Basics

When last we left our heroes, Bayaz was organizing an expedition to the Old Empire to find a magical MacGuffin, and Ferro, Logen, and Jezal are his chosen band to help him in his quest. Meanwhile, Glokta has been shipped off to Dagoska with a Gurkish army standing right outside the city gates.

My Thoughts

Favorite in the series. Absolute favorite. That doesn’t even require thought for me to say; it’s that thoughtlessly good. It’s exciting and adventurous. It’s funny. It’s chocked full of surprising character interaction. Glokta gets to be a magnificent bastard all over Dagoska. The First Law Trilogy had me with the characters in the first novel, and suddenly the story ramps up here and gets more, better, bigger, faster.

I made this statement already with my review of the first book, but it bears repeating in a big way. Abercrombie is big on subverting fantasy tropes. Characters don’t do what they’d do in their designated fantasy roles. They break molds. That doesn’t just extend to characters either. If this were Tolkien, these characters would face adversity and then ultimately succeed, but Abercrombie isn’t interested in regurgitating what we’ve already read, and on the sliding scale of optimism versus cynicism, he is a major cynic. He takes such an enormous chance at the end of this book, it was like watching someone walk off the edge of a cliff with a grin on their face. And it worked. Beautifully. I think I remember feeling utterly shocked and then busting out with hysterical laughter. It’s that kind of book.

This is the Empire Strikes Back of The First Law Trilogy. The book that might annoy some, but others with more mature tastes will enjoy for the leaps of faith and the journey itself. Abercrombie proves that it’s not about reaching a conclusion, that rushing to get there is pointless. I’ll get a little more into that with my review of the third book, because it illustrates that concept even better in my opinion.

I’ve said in other reviews, particularly of fantasy series that have hooked me, that I don’t hook easily. I am a slippery fish when it comes to committing to a series, and he had me from the first book. So much so that I read this one only a couple weeks later, because I couldn’t stand being away from this world. I am not that kind of reader. I’ve been known to wait years between books in a series. I’m trying to impart how addictive this series is, how you will not be able to turn back when you begin. It’s well worth your time.

Final Rating

5/5

The Basics

A collection of horror one-shots. The title story tells of a tragic and dangerous shape-shifter, a stealer of faces.

My Thoughts

As opposed to the previous volume, this was definitely more on track of what I love to see from Ito. In particular, “Falling” captured perfectly that penchant for tragedy that Ito has. His horror becomes more effective not just for the cosmic nature of it in most of what he writes, but for the empathy with the characters. In the case of “Falling”, we are told the story through the eyes of a husband watching his wife suffer from a mysterious illness, and it feels like this is where Ito found the personal story within the horror that made it that much more effective.

I’m also a fan of “Scarecrows”, another horror story that finds a personal, empathic edge that makes it all the sharper. But the star of this collection is definitely “The Hanging Balloons”. The artwork is incredible, which makes the very idea of it, and it’s a very strange idea, truly terrifying.

Ito rarely explains why a thing is happening. Mostly he just presents the events, and no one ever gets an explanation. For me, this makes the whole thing scarier. What’s worse than stumbling blindly into a void? What tickles at our fear centers more than the unknown? But I could see this annoying some readers, so fair warning.

In truth, there isn’t a weak story to be found in this volume, and I highly recommend it.

Final Rating

5/5

The Basics

A collection of horror one-shots. The title story tells of a school teacher dealing with a troubled student. He is aggressive and bullying toward the other children, and something appears to wrong with his skin. As if it’s thinning. Things get a lot more serious when the teacher visits his home…

My Thoughts

For the most part, I enjoyed this collection, though it’s clear this was earlier in Junji Ito’s career. This wasn’t the stage where he was drawing some of the absolutely insane art that you’ll find in Uzumaki or Tomie. Many of these stories seemed downright mundane as far as the art is concerned, compared to what I know he can do, but the storytelling itself was still strong.

Out of the stories here, I thought the title tale, “Flesh-Colored Horror”, was strong. “Dying Young”, which was about a disease that made the homely girls at a local school beautiful before killing them, was another of the more robust stories. In this case, it was an interesting play on the vampire myth, though other readers might think I’m stretching to say that. I felt there were parallels to be made, and I liked the originality of it. I also felt this story was attempting to be a commentary on vanity, how it destroys, and I appreciated that about it.

The weakest of the stories was definitely “Beehive” for me. It was a revenge story incorporating bees, and it just didn’t do anything for me.

Even though this is a somewhat tame collection for my tastes, I think this would be a great place to start for those of you who want to cautiously get into Junji Ito’s work.

Final Rating

4/5